Fascism, Fear and Failure In Victoria

Danistan is spiralling out of control:

Victoria is a failed state. It is being run by one of the most arrogant, corrupt and anti-democratic politicians in the nation. And everything Premier Dan Andrews touches seems to fall to pieces. The fiasco that is Victoria keeps going from bad to worse.

Despite having the harshest and longest lockdown measures in the world – including shutting down playgrounds and skate parks with zero medical justification – the virus continues to spread here, and the Victorian government is still clueless in how to deal with it.

Like most of our leaders in this country, it is all about politics. Their insane policies are not based on science and medicine, but simply on political considerations. And a main consideration is to make things as hard on Prime Minister Morrison as possible in light of the upcoming federal election, likely to be held next May.

Our leaders are only interested in numbers, not in the people. As I wrote the other day:

A poll just came out looking at voter’s satisfaction with the way Andrews in Victoria has been handling the Covid situation. In just a short two-week period he lost a full 12 percentage points in this area. Victorians are getting sick and tired with his arrogance, his power-tripping, the lockdowns, and the utter lack of hope and a future here. So it shows in the latest poll numbers.

 

Unless a politician is really stupid and aloof, a 12-point drop in approval ratings in two weeks is something to seriously take note of. And guess what: that is exactly what Andrews seems to have done. Up until yesterday he was completely obsessed with, and dead-set in favour of, a useless zero case strategy; nothing opens up until we defeat the virus. His was an eradication strategy: we must get to zero cases before we can even think about returning to normal. https://billmuehlenberg.com/2021/09/01/lockdown-insanity-forever/

As we speak, Labor continues to implode, with politicians turning on each other. Consider this from today’s press:

Former Victorian health minister Jenny Mikakos has called for a royal commission into Australia’s pandemic response and called into question the performance of Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton. In her first public appearance since resigning under pressure from Premier Daniel Andrews last year, Ms Mikakos reaffirmed her discontent that department officials did not inform her of emerging issues with contact tracing and quarantine hotel protocols during the state’s second wave of COVID-19 infections last year….

 

“There is a need for a thorough examination of the entire pandemic response, by state governments, by federal governments. These pandemics will keep occurring.” https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/mikakos-calls-for-pandemic-royal-commission-questions-sutton-s-performance-20210902-p58obb.html

And you know things have become an utter failure for this government when the most hardcore leftist leader in the country is attacked by the most far-left pro-Labor newspaper in the country, the Melbourne Age. In a stinging editorial the Age tore into Andrews and his failed policies. It speaks of the current activities pushed by Andrews and continues:

Reaching the vaccination threshold will take until October or November if we’re lucky, and even then some restrictions and public health measures will remain. But there comes a point, and The Age believes that point has been reached, where the damage caused by the harshest and longest lockdowns in the country needs to be more seriously factored in. Wednesday’s announced “easing” was a harsh and cruel blow. Playgrounds can open on Friday (although, in true Victorian style, only one carer can attend and they cannot remove their mask even to eat or drink). Few experts ever endorsed the playground ban in the first place.

 

Premier Dan Andrews announced that once 70 per cent of us have had one vaccine dose – on or around September 23 – Melburnians may be granted the right to travel 10 kilometres from their home, rather than five kilometres. The night curfews remain in Melbourne, despite limited evidence they make a difference. There is no plan to return children to schools until term 4, despite the serious impact home schooling is having on our young people’s mental health and the long-term damage this is doing to the educational chances of our most disadvantaged children. At least the government announced it would prioritise vaccination for year 12 students.

 

Enough.

 

The Age is not arguing that we should throw out restrictions, but instead that we need to work out those that could be lifted at minimal risk to health but with maximum benefit to Victorians. “Minimal risk” is not “no risk”, but we must shift towards a more balanced position, even a little. Health authorities and the Premier have always said that a “package” of measures is needed and that one measure cannot be separated from others. But since we all now agree we will not get to zero cases, the government needs to adjust the balance of that “package”, because, after six lockdowns, many people are struggling beyond the point of endurance.

 

The Age has also had enough of the lack of information from the state government. Such harsh restrictions enforced for such an extended time must be fully justified with clear evidence that they are effective. Victorians need to see the modelling. We need to know where people are becoming infected. How many at home? How many in workplaces? How many (as far as we can know) were infected while having a picnic?

 

Premier, your state needs hope. No more lectures about compliance. No more measures that have limited if any evidence to back them just in case they might assist around the edges. We need a plan for the 30 per cent or more who are fully vaccinated to have more freedoms at some point, a plan to re-open schools and businesses once vaccination targets are reached.

 

The state can no longer live like this. https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/victoria-can-t-go-on-like-this-20210901-p58nql.html

That certainly stirred up a storm. The Danbots of course rushed to his defence, while others praised the Age. Yet as one tweet pointed out, they have been part and parcel of this disaster: “The Age was once a real newspaper, but has been captured by the woke Left over the last 4 decades. It backed the Andrews fear-and-panic regime over Covid for 18 months but even it has now had enough. But no apology yet for its own complicity in the madness.”

And it is not just the colossal failure of this government when dealing with the Rona. Add to this the police state-like conditions now found in Victoria. Anyone who dares to criticise this regime can expect the police to come knocking on their door and to be dragged away.

That was the case with Monica Smit, the head of Reignite Democracy Australia. She is now languishing in the Victoriastan Gulag for daring to speak out against the egomaniac and power-drunk leader Andrews. What is happening to her is utterly shocking, and it will happen to you and me as well, so we better wake up real fast.

Listen to this brief update from her mother and father. Monica’s parents John and Lise say the most powerful thing we can do right now is pray. But we can also write letters and emails. Please see the video to get the contact details: https://www.reignitedemocracyaustralia.com.au/monicas-parents-vid/

Thankfully others are speaking out about this beleaguered political prisoner. This includes some of our finest federal politicians, including Craig Kelly and George Christensen. George recently wrote this:

Anti-lockdown campaigner Monica Smit is currently a political prisoner in the People’s Republic of DanAndrewstan, otherwise known as Victoria. Earlier today, I spoke with both Ms Smit’s partner and also her lawyer who informed me of this news.

 

She has been charged with a claim of “incitement” and allegedly breaching the CHO directives for posting remarks online in that were in opposition to the Victorian Labor Government’s lockdown regime.

 

In order to secure bail, the authorities demanded that she not only shut down her political organisation Reignite Democracy Australia and all of its associated websites and social media accounts but they also demanded that she not continue to “incite” opposition to the Victorian Labor Government’s lockdown regime which would likely mean she is not able to express her opposition to the Andrews’ lockdown regime publicly.

 

It should be noted that Reignite Democracy Australia has an application before the electoral commission to become a political party. So to be clear, Ms Smit will only be allowed out of jail if she shuts down a fledgling political party and that fledgling political party’s means of communications, and if she refrains from any discussion around the political issue of lockdowns in Victoria. Ms Smit’s imprisonment and her bail conditions are a clear breach of the implied constitutional freedom of political communication.

 

And just as this freedom is being undermined in Victoria, so too is the public trust and respect for the police when VicPol is arresting and prosecuting political campaigners like Ms Smit. I call on Ms Smit to be released from jail without these outrageous limitations on her political rights and for the police to withdraw the politically-motivated charges against her and to refrain from further political arrests and prosecutions.

Victoria is a failed state run by failed leaders. Enough is enough. It is not just Monica who needs to be set free – all Victorians need to be set free.

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